Category Archives: Australia

When we were at (and on) the Athabasca Glacier, there were photos that showed the glacier receding over the years. My brother in law in Drake Bay, Costa Rica, last night was telling my wife about his colleague/associate/acquaintance has been measuring the decline in the numbers of frogs and snakes in the rainforests. When I got certified to scuba dive in 1981, we’d see sharks on practically every other dive, often groups of sharks. Now, seeing a shark is rare, one in ten or more dives.

Glacial decline has been measured since the 1850’s, (according to an article on Wikipedia), so I’m not sure it’s all humans fault, but I think humans main power is destructive and we need to change. I remember a book I read years ago, “Mutant Message Down Under”, and ask, Which society is more advanced? One that lives in a place 10,000 years, and you can’t even tell they were ever there? Or a society that practically destroys it’s environment with pollution and war in 250 years?

I think the answer is obvious.

Today is my first day back at work since my vacation. blah. Why do I have to go work to get money to buy a fish for dinner when I could just go out and get the fish myself. Because I also have to pay for my house and the bills. The whole system of money has something inherently wrong with it.

It was a good weekend, and way too short.
On a cold and dreary Saturday, we went to a little girls 5th birthday party. It was an incredible amount of fun, and I am sure the water was warmer than the air.

Every single picture I took is incredible, seems to me. Little kids are perfect beings. I had the warm fuzzies all day.

Sunday I studied for my real estate test, which apparently I was supposed to take last week. I was planning on going to the USA last week and told the lady, but I guess there was some mis-communication. I think I have lost my interest in real estate.,,

Also we went out and watched every team I like lose at American Football. Except Cincinnati and Seattle, they won. Redskins played good but lost anyway.

And now we are at a Monday morning. We’ll see what happens!

We have a hostage situation in Australia, some Muslim kid took hostages at a cafe and that’s been going on for about 12 hours. Flying a home made ISIS flag, asking for a real one. Idiot.

As I type this, Queensland, Australia is getting whacked by Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi, a category 4 or maybe 5 typhoon.This is a very strong storm, the news says it is stronger than anything in the memory or “recent generations” and may destroy even “Cyclone proof” homes with sustained winds of 300 kilometers per hour. That’s about 186 miles per hour. Winds may gust up to 40% higher than the sustained peak. That’s gusts of 420 Kilometers per hour, or about 260 miles per hour.
Plus, being a continent, and not a small island, there are tsunamis probable. With an island, the water can go around the land, on a continent, the water has no where to go but ashore. To me this storm looks like it’s going to be really really bad.

This picture forecasts the storm coming ashore as a category 5.

I hope Australia makes it through with amazingly little damage and minimal deaths. I’ll be thinking about them. I have been through several hurricanes, here in Cayman and in Hawaii. Mainly Ivan and Ewa. There is nothing that can compare to the power of a hurricane.Click HEREfor the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology.